Ai' BANANAS NATURE'S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMO- TION OF LAZINESS By EDWARD \Vl' PERRY * V J, oo., ,', ■>',"* : . J ■>., ' ' ^ i' J ^ ^ COPYRIGHTKD 1903 BY HARRY \VILKIN TKRRY' Cu J, Two COPIeiP Rf=CE(VED OCT 2b 1903 *) / ^ V J" COPY B- REVISED EDITION NOTE The chapter given in the following pages is from a work en- titled : " Tropicai, America: Its Pi^anters and Planta- tions," now in preparation. Sports Afield said of the author : " Probably no American is more competent to write of the coun- try life than is this author, who, because of his long-trained habits of observation, careful search for the bottom facts and weighing of details, of deducing therefrom the essentials and presenting them clearly and concisely, has made the best possible use of his time and experience." < (,. ttlCct til * t e t I CHAPTER III. Nature's Institution for the Promotion of Laziness. Bananas : What they are, how they grow, what they cost, and what they give to man. Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, ma3'hap long before that Old World arose from the waters, man lived on the fruit of the Musas. There are those who would tell you that the banana is the fruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam ; and that evidence of the truth of this may be found in the fact that if one will cut across a banana, of the right kind, he may find in its heart the sign of the cross; and in the other fact that men of learning have given to a banana the name of Musa %)aradisiaca, which being interpreted means the Fruit of paradise, and to another banana they have given the name Mvsa sajnentum, which the sapient know means the Fruit of knowledge. IvCss evidence has serv^ed well enough to burn heretics at the .stake. Man has carried this gigantic herb to every fertile spot in a belt that girdles the waist of the globe — a girdle that is four thousand miles and more in width. Millions uncounted have looked to it for the chief of their diet, as other millions have looked to the cereals. And to this hour puling babes and doddering ancients are fed with the fruit in all its stages and conditions, A BUNCH OF HANANAS THE MAKING OF A BANANA PI^ANTATION 5 green or over-ripe, raw or roasted, baked or fried, liquid or dried. At least forty species of the Musos are known and described, and of these there are several sub-varieties. They have been classed by Dr. Sagot into three groups, as follows : Giant bananas, of which M. ensete is the type. In this group no suckers are formed. Fruit leathery and not edible, with few seeds. Fleshy-fruited bananas; 31. sapicnhmi the type. Stem pro- duces suckers; spike long and decurved; fruit fleshy and usually eatable. Ornamental bananas. Spike often erect, not pendant; bracts persistent, brightly colored, each with a few flowers on its axil; suckers many; fruit leathery, 31. rosacea furnish familiar examples of this group. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the single man of the tropics to take unto himself a helpmeet for him, and to provide for other events likely to come after, he selects some fertile spot, usually on the border of waters over which his canoe may easily carrj^ the bulky harvests he will have ; and there he cuts down tree and vine, bush and bamboo, and lets them lie as they fall in tangled mass. Every da}^ the ardent sun helps the constant wind to shrivel leaf and twig until, one day, the windward edge of that snarl is touched by the torch, and in a moment a blazing hades is where a cool and shady grove will soon rustle in the breeze. When the last flame hss flickered out and coals lie dead beneath their gray shroud, women paddle to that place with canoes laden with banana sprouts. With machetes they dig little pits amid charred stumps and trunks and branches, and in each hole they set a sprout. 6 HOW BANANAS GROW Then they go away to wait, and rest; and the vSun shines warmly down into that clearing, breezes sift a gray veil of ashes over the wilted suckers that look like black and ragged stakes; and at last come showers which wash them clean. Those stakes are made up of sheathes of leaves tightly rolled one around another, the inner ones nar- row, cream-colored and tender; those nearer the outer ones wider and j^et wider, until the outer one is reached. The outer one covers nearly or quite three-fourths of the stem. When the warm rains fall, the tender leaves unroll and spread to their widest, and the sun dries and the wand whips them until soon they are split into nar- row ribbons; and a few weeks after that planting a sea of giant leaves waves and whispers in the breeze — a roof of bright and tender green covering the moist, black ground. Not before the plant has grown to a height of ten to twenty, and in some places to thirty feet, does the flower-stem begin pushing its way up from the base through the middle of the stalk. In a short time it sends out at the top one or more leaves, smaller than their older fellows, as a signal that flower and fruit will quickly follow. Soon every supporting column of those graceful arches ends in a cone of red that deepens into purple and swells until its outer petals are crowded off by the fatness of the fruit they hide, that these may have air and light. Under those petals the baby bananas are packed close, like fingers tightly grip- ping the parent stem. These closed ranks, each sepa- rate hand or whorl reaching half way around the stalk, grow so quickly that in «-ix or eight weeks the bunch v/eighs fifty pounds or more. BANANAS THAT ARK FIT TO COOK 7 To most people of northern climes bananas are merely — bananas. For such folk know as little of the many varieties of bananas as they know of the many and varied uses of that fruit. Perchance that is why they fry the common yellow guineo which comes by millions of bunches each year to the United States, and then won- der that folk who have dwelt in the tropics, and who extol fried bananas, show nevertheless that they cannot like the mushy, cloying mess set before them here. He who grows bananas, and she who cooks them for him, select for frying that thick-bodied, hard-fleshed and rather tart fruit which they call platano, and which is by blundering English-speaking tongues misnamed plantain. And even among the platanos there is room for choosing, for there are of them several varieties. Best of these is that little one which bears, on the Mosquito Shore whence good bananas come, the Span- ish name "miel," or honey, coupled with the Waika word ' ' silpe, ' ' or little. The name ' ' maiden ' ' platano also is given to the " little honey," most fittingly, for it has just enough of piquant tartness to give unfailing relish, yet is tender, plump and mighty comforting withal, upon occasion. If he is so lucky as to live near a port where steam- ships stop, the planter may sell his platanos for a cent or even two cents for each finger or fruit; and as the plants may be set only eight or ten feet apart, and each will mature a bunch of thirty to fifty fingers every nine months, it is clear that he who has an acre of platanos may have a tidy income of food or of cash. Usually the planter prefers to eat this food, for which reason people in the North have few opportunities for learning 8 GOOD TO EAT, GREEN OR RIPE the superior virtues of the fruit. The planter is quite right, for the platano is the one banana fit to be cooked; and is by no means bad to eat raw. Sometimes a planter may leave a bunch of bananas to ripen on the standing stalk, but that will rarely be, for the fruit so ripened is strong in flavor, dry and too soft to bear transportation; its skin splits, and ants, bees and other insects gather about the exposed flesh. Therefore the women lug home green bunches and hang them in the house to ripen, where ever3'body who has the right — and that is ever}^ visitor, every member of the family and every passing acquaintance — may pluck and eat as the fruit turns 3^ellow and becomes tender. Meanwhile many of the fruits will have been taken from the bunch, peeled and broken into bits, to be boiled with beef or pork, or flesh of the deer, peccary or other game. Another sub- variety of platanos bears, in Mosqui- tia, the name of " butuco," perhaps from the name of the River Patuca — or may be the river has taken its name from the banana. The butuco is perhaps rather more tart than the miel silpe, and when fried reminds one of fried greening apples, and when stewed has somewhat of the flavor of stewed peaches. In either way it is most agreeable to the taste. There are other platanos, also, most of them giants among bananas, many being fifteen or more inches long and some two or three inches in diameter. These are firm in flesh, resist decay much longer than do the common guin- eos, and will, therefore, much better bear transpor- tation. They should become known to the millions Df northern lands, for they would afford a vast supply WHAT BANANAS ARE WORTH AS FOOD 9 of food much more convenient and palatable than, and equal in value to, potatoes. Prof. Wynter Ely the, of London, is an analyst -vho tells us that the relative values of bananas and sago, corn meal and wheat flour are as follows : Constituents Banana Sago Corn Meal Wheat Flour Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Water. 8.05 4-45 13.00 II .09 15.08 Soluble albumen dextrine Starch 82.57 78.06 85-30 81.60 Albunienoids 2.28 2-57 2-37 2. II Fat 0.77 A.sh 1.88 0.53 0.43 0.35 In a report on the constituents and food values of most articles in common use on northern tables, the United States Department of Agriculture gave, in the year 1903, very valuable figures which show that nine- teen vegetables and ten varieties of fruits which make up the chief of our diet, have the following parts and values : Elements Vegetables Fruits Bananas Carbohydrates, parts Fats Protein 8.9 0.4 2.0 0.9 73-0 14.8 II. I 0.4 0.6 0-5 64-3 23.1 14-3 0.4 0.8 Ash 0.6 Water 48.9 35 Refuse Fuel values 203.9 204.0 2(.O.0 This shows that while of valuable nutritive ele- ments, the nineteen fresh vegetables have 11.3 parts and the ten varieties of succulent fruits have 1 2. i parts, the bananas have 15.5 parts. From this it appears, also, that if the fresh fruits and vegetables were ac- tually worth, as food, say $1.17, bananas of like weight would be worth 38 cents more. BANANAS VS. BEEF AND WHEAT II Statements made by other anah^sts seem to warrant the deduction that the nutritive value of a ton of pota- toes, at one cent per pound, is 19 cents more than that of a ton of bananas aj: the same price. There is a differ- ence, too, in the cost of production of a ton of potatoes and the cost of raising a ton of bananas. The field for potatoes must be plowed and harrowed in the spring, the seed dropped in furrows, which are then to be covered, after which comes cultivating again and again until the time has come for digging and picking, cart- ing, sacking and hauling, often to a distant market. Luckily for the millions who have depended so largel}^ on the banana for sustenance, the plant has few, if any, insect enemies and diseases, in which they differ somewhat from some fruits and tubers of the North. Man}^ times an assertion has been printed to the effect that Humboldt said that an acre of bananas yields forty-four times as much food as does an acre of wheat. In the year 1902 the average yield of wheat in the United States equalled 12.79 bushels, or 767.4 pounds. This had a food value equal to nearly one- third that of the average output of bananas from an acre. It is often said that one pound of bananas has as much nutrition as has a pound of beef. The truth is that one pound of beef is worth three and one-third pounds of bananas. Bananas are far enough ahead of tlie harvests the farmer of the North gets, without making exaggerated claims for the fruit of the tropics. So the planter of bananas has each year four and a half times as much palatable food from an acre as the farmer gets from his potatoes: and there is the 12 WHERE BANANAS MAY BEST BE GROWN further difference that the one has bananas at no other cost than that of keeping down bush and grass and vine, that would quickly cover every vSpot to which the sunshine could penetrate, along the edges of the plan- tation. For bananas 3'ield j^ear after 3'ear without re- planting. Each new sialk springs from the foot of its parei't, grows to a height of fifteen to thirty-five feet, bears its burden of luscious fruit, and dies; but not before it has sent up from its own root new stalks to fruit and die — and so on through the centuries. He who would grow bananas for market must plant on the border of navigable waters p-iving accCvSS to some harbor or anchorage where ships may safely lie while receiving the fruit. For it is easil}^ bruised, and wetting by salt water blackens the skins, thus in- juring or preventing the sale. Plantations are usually on the banks of rivers or of estuaries, but some are beside railroads, to which the frwit is carried by carts thickly carpeted with banana leaves. A cruder way is to hang a few bunches over the back of a burro or of a mule, which plods along to the shipping place. It is evident that the entire area which can so be devoted to banana culture- must be small, for most Central American and Mexican rivers are obstructed at their mouths by sandbars, over which ships cannot pass. Bluefields, Nicaragua, has been a most profit- able field for banana growing, because it has a river into which sea-going ships can safely enter, and up which such ships may go fifty or sixty miles, and re- ceive their cargoes from landings on the plantations which border the Rio Escondido. Yet millions of bun- ches of bananas have been shipped from the open coast SOME PROFITS OP THE TRADE 13 of Honduras, where the one good harbor is that at Puerto Cortez. Other milHons have been shipped from Port Limon and from Bocas del Toro, in Costa Rica, whence a few hundred bunches were sent as a beginning to the United States in the year 1883. Twenty years later the port of Limon itself sent 4,174,200 bunches to the markets of the world. They brought to Costa Rica credit for producing the best bananas known. For ages the native of banana lands was content with the fact that he got from his plantation more than enough food. Some thirty-five yesLVS ago a few bold men ventured to pav twelve or fifteen cents a bunch for a few cargoes in the Bay Islands, off the coast of Honduras, and carried them to the Gulf States. There they found they could sell the fruit, for there lived people who had traveled to the tropics, and learned to eat their foods. To-day millions of bunches are each year sold in the United States and even in Canada, and in 1902 ship-loads were sent from Costa Rica direct to Europe. That little republic alone received not less than §1,127,400 for bananas sold abroad during the year that ended with September, 1902. The United Fruit Company, of Boston, was formed in tl'e year 1888, and ten years later was said to have a surplus of more than §6,000,000, owned thousands of acres of bananas, and had built expressly for its fruit carr3'ing business four superb steamers, and em- ployed many others. It is safe to assume that more than §6,000,000 was paid in the year 1902, in Central America alone, to planters of bananas. Nearl}^ all of that was paid by 14 WHERK BANANAS ARE AT THEIR BEST products of American farms, factories and forests. Farmer, manufacturer and miner, lumberman, railroad man and sailor, merchant and broker of this countr}-, are all concerned in and benefited by the work done in shady aisles beneath banana leaves on the banks of tropic rivers. Bananas reach their best estate on the low, deep alluvium near the Caribbean coast, where the tempera- ture never sinks below 60° and is seldom below 80° F. Such low lands serve all the better if flooded two or three times in the year, for the banana will drink much ' water, and such floods bring silt from the hills, and thus keep the ground fertilized without cost to the owner. In 1897 the famed banana fields of the Rio Escondido were so deeply flooded that the steamship ' 'Saga" voy- aged through the main streets of Rama, fully sixty miles from the mouth of the river, to pick off from their roofs the dwellers in that town. The bananas barely showed their tops above the yellow flood. Along the coast flew reports that the plantations were ruined; subscriptions were asked to help the planters: and three months later they were harvesting better crops than in years before. Their plantations had been so enriched that they bore most bountifully. Bananas may be grown wherever there is some moisture and no near approach to the frost line; but a touch of frost cuts down the banana as a breath from a fiery furnace would blight a tender lily. The city of Tegucigalpa is 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, yet in that town is a field some thirty feet above the cur- rent in the swift river which it borders. It is very dry during months of each year, but in that field are plata- FOR WHAf BANANAS ARE TRUIvY GOOD 1 5 nos which reach a height of more than twenty feet and bear bunches enough comfortably to support the owner. In narrow caiion and wider valley near that place are many patches of bananas which bring to their planters a sufficient income. And at that altitude the mercury sometimes falls below 65° Fahrenheit. In the land of bananas, cats, dogs and pigs, mules, horses and cattle, parrots, babies and all other domestic animals thrive on this perfect nature-food, when they can get it. I have seen an Indian woman pry open with her fingers the jaws of a baby peccary, and with a gruel of green bananas choke off its incessant, rasp- ing cry of " ma, ma!" And the next instant she put that same calabash of gruel to the lips of her own babe of three or four months. I've seen other Indians feed infant tapir, suckling jaguar, skinny squabs of parrots and very young monkeys on such pap, which those folk call wabool. I, myself, have safely carried abandoned cardinals through from their infant days of a beggarl}^ few pin feathers to those of full regimentals of brilliant scarlet and epaulets of jet; and they were as overflow- ing with joyful song and saucy happiness as they could have been had worms and bugs been the chief of their diet every day of their lives, instead of the bananas on which they had been largely fed. Why not, indeed, when cakes and beer, brandy and sugar, pies, puddings and sauce, and many anoth- er thing good for man to take for his stomach's sake, are made from bananas. So, too, are paper and laces, brushes, and cloth, and cordage enough to pull up the earth by its roots, if only we had a place to hook the tackle. INSURANCE THAT DOES INSURE I7 When he has set out an acre or two of bananas, the planter need have no fears for the future. He has ample insurance against such privations as come from illness, accident or old age: and they who by a little labor pay for such insurance share each day its mate- rial benefits. No need for them to die that others may enjoy the blessings of such wise provision; nor need the planter toil with hoe or spade, cultivator or plow. It may be he will vSlash away with machete such vine or sapling, grass or weed as happens to obstruct his path; but as a whole he interferes as little as possible with the operations of kindly Mother Nature. She is more than ready to do his work: he is willing to let her do it. He whose acre of bananas has been well planted has on it 225 hills, or 900 stalks. Each stalk will give him a bunch which, on rich, new ground, should weigh 60 pounds, say 54,000 pounds each 12 or 14 months. That is the theory. The fact seems to be that the av- erage yield is really 175 to 300 full bunches to the acre per annum, say a mean of 270 bunches weighing about 16,000 pounds. The average yield reported all along the Caribbean shore and from Jamaica, during a dozen years, equaled 270.95 full bunches an acre per annum. In the year 1902 the average yield of potatoes in the United States was 80.44 bushels per acre, and the average farm value was 49 cents per bushel, or $39.45 an acre. In Costa Rica the average price of bananas on the plantation was equal to at least 27 cents a bunch. At that figure 261 bunches would bring $70.47. In August, 1903, the price was raised to 3 1 cents a bunch on contracts to run three to five years; which should evig l8 WHAT SOME PLANTERS HAVE DONE $84.00 per acre each year. That is a cash difference of $44.55 in favor of the man whose bananas raised themselves for him. There was another difference in his favor, for his fruit may be eaten green or ripe, ravr or roasted, boiled or fried, with fish, flesh or fowl, or with none of these. Those who dwell in the mountain regions, far from the ports whence bananas are shipped, dip in lye and dry in the sun many a platano. It is then shriveled, moldy-looking and altogether unlovely; but if kept dry it remains sweet and wholesome many a year. It may be eaten uncooked, when it is a gummy, sugary paste; but drop it into scalding water, put it into a hot oven, or stick it up beside the fire, and it becomes might- ily puffed up, tender and savory. It might be sent thus dried to feed the people of the North or of Europe, for it would be easily packed and carried. Naturally the intelligent planter concerns himself mainly with the question What is the cost, the yield and the profit of banana growing ? There are evidences that man}^ people in the North feel a livel}^ curiosity about the same points. Before one can give a trustworthy reply to such question he must study the evidence of those who have had opportunity to learn the truth, and he should be able to present the general averages of the results shown by many such witnesses. The planter of medium abil- ity and industry may confidently expect to attain the average results; he who has less intelligence and thift should not complain if he fails to get as good returns; he who shows more than common skill, application and energy will win greater reward than is shown by the WHAT THEY COST AND WHAT THKY GIVE I? average of the banana-growing of the many, as in other occupations great skill and industry bring the larger rewards. Reports covering j^ears of experience by thousands of planters in the West Indies and along the Atlantic coast of Mexico and of Central America, indicate that the cost per acre of making banana plantations and cultivating and harvesting the first crop therefrom, the yield in bunches and the income, are as shown in the following table : Countries Bunches Income Cost Profit Costa Rica 250.0 267.5 294.0 2,88.0 280.0 246.2 S 70 67 124 36 121 13 109 48 123 61 86 36 $ 28 84 42 80 18 97 27 5S 28 12 22 07 $ 41 ^3 81 56 Guataiuala Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicarai^ua 81 90 95 49 64 29 Averages 270.95 S105 94 S 28 06 $ 77 S7 From the foregoing it appears that the general average yield per acre during the twenty years covered by the figures given, was 270.95 bunches per acre; the average cost per acre was §28.06, which was only 10.3 cents per bunch. The profit per bunch was 28.7 cents, or 287.9 per cent. A report dated August i, 1903, by Las Haciendas de Santa Clara, Costa Rica, which has 550 acres of bananas in full bearing, and where wages are one colon or 47 cents per diem, gives the cost of cultivating and delivering the fruit at the railroad, as $17.69 per acre, the yield at 173 bunches and the income at $54.90 an- nually. That shows that the bananas cost 10.2 cents per bunch, and that the profit was 20.8 cents a bunch, or 200 per cent. But as the fruit is sold five years 20 YET BETTER PROFITS INIIGHT BE MADE ahead at those figures, the small percentage of profit may be regarded as a fair return for the investment, combined as it is with an assurance of continued gain. There are those who insist that the higher results shown in the foregoing table may easily be obtained by an}' one who will give as much thought and labor to growing bananas as are required for the successful rais- ing of corn or of potatoes. It is true that the figures on which the averages shown are based were, in many cases, from the experience of native and other planters of little diligence and skill, and that they got smaller results than might easil}' have been obtained. It may be possible that if one will allow two or three stalks to rise from each stand of bananas, and together mature their fruit, he many get 444 to 780 bunches from an acre each of a few 3xars, and that in such a case he might get $185 to $278 for the crop; but it will be clear to all that he who expects to make only 270 bunches per annum from an acre, and get only J78 profit therefrom, will be safer than he who invests his money with the expectation of making greater gains. The Hand Book of Nicaragua, published by the Bureau of American Republics, which is under the di- rection of the U. vS. Department of State, says : There is, perhaps, no industry in Central America that is more attractive to men of small capital than banana growing, from the fact that the clearing of" the land is effected cheaply, and from the small cost of after-cultivation, which is limited only to such clearing of weeds and undergrowth as may be suf- ficient to allow access to the trees, and the short time necessary to produce a payinjjj crop. When the trees and 1)rush that have been cut mi clearing the land 1)ecome sufficiently dry, they are burned, and the banana suckers are then ])lanted amonjr the BANANAS JUST CAUSE FOR DISCONTENT 21 charred remains and aslies, without any further preparation of the vSoil. The best resuUs are obtained by giving the trees plenty of space, say from 15 to 18 feet apart. In about ten months the first fruit can be gathered ; but in the second year the trees reach maturity, and by a proper management of the fruit stalks in a fair sized plantation a constant succession in the crop may be secured, and fruit gathered every week throughout the year. The only careful work necessary on a banana plantation is in handling the heavy bunches so as to avoid bruising them, as an}' such injury causes a black spot to appear, beneath which decay quickly begins as the fruit ripens. The natives have learned by experience when they cut into the fruit stalk so to gauge the strength of the blow as to cut just deep enough to cause the stalk to bend slowly over until the end of the bunch reaches the ground, when another slash with the machete severs it, and it is loaded carefully into the cart. A plantation of 40 manzanas (about 69 acres) will, during and after the second year, produce about 54,000 bunches. The lowest price paid for bunches for some years past is 3 7 4^ cents per bunch, which would give an annual value of the crop of ^20,250, or more than double the expenditure for purchase of land, clearing, cultivating and gathering the crop, and all ex- penses to the end of the second year. As the cost of producing bananas after the first crop from a plantation is confined to cultivating and harvesting, which may be done for $io per acre 3xarly, it is scarcely wonderful that Judge O'Hara, late U. S. Consul at Grey town, Nicaragua, a lawyer whose acute mind is trained to sifting evidence, reported to the De- partment of State at Washington regarding banana- growing on the Atlantic coast of that republic, that : It seems reasonably certain that bananas on the Bluefields River pa}^ better than many crops in the United States. * * * * These figures would seem to indicate that at the end of a year a planter having 36 acres of bananas under cultivation would have 13,847.32 left after paying for all necessary labor and pro- COMPARED WITH THE CROPS OP THE NORTH 23 visions — figures apt to bring discontent to an American farmer having but 36 acres of wheat or corn; and especiall}^ so when he compares the price of his land, ranging from ^15 to $So per acre, with that of land in eastern Nicaragua, where cultivated lands may be said to have no established market value, few im- proved plantations having ever been sold. Such discontent might be aggravated by consider- ation of the differences which exist between the results .obtained from the chief eight crops of tne United States and those shown by the foregoing summary of banana farming. These differences are illustrated by the fol- lowing figures, those for the crops of the North show- ing the yield and values for the year 1S97. The last column shows the difference in favor of bananas per acre : CROPS Yield per acre Value per acre Difference, fa- vor of Bananas Barley, bushels 23.11 16.08 24.62 27.19 80.44 13-30 12.78 1.26 7ecomes more perceptible when warm water is poured upon it, and has a considerable resemblance to that of orris root. When mixed with cold water it forms a feebly tenacious dough, more adhesive than that of oatmeal, but much less so than that of wheaten flour. When baked on a hot plate this dough forms a cake which is agreeable to the sense of smell, and is by no means unpleasant to the taste. When boiling water is poured over the meal it is changed into a transparent jelly, hav- ing an agreeable taste and smell. Boiled with water it forms a thick gelatinous mass, very much like boiled sago in color, l)ut Dossessing a peculiar pleasant odor. In this connection it may be interesting to note that, according to an analysis published in the Aiaer- ican Analyst, New York, February i5tli, 1893, the chemical composition of bananas and potatoes is almost identical, as shown by the following comparison : MANY THINGS MADK OF BANANAS 27 Banana Potato Water 75-71 75-77 Albumenoids ■ I-71 ^-79 Total carbonaceous matter (non-nitrogenous) 20.13 20.72 Woody fibre i.74 -75 Ash 71 -97 Nor do the food elements in bananas and platanos vary greatly, the sum of each being about the same. In a communication to Kew by Mr. Louis Asser, of the Hague, Holland, it was announced that a syn- dicate proposes to take up the manufacture of banana and plantain meal and the preparation of dried bananas on a large scale in Dutch Guiana. The communication referred to gives the following list of commercial prep- arations from the banana and the platano : 1. Dried sHces of the entire frviit (pulp and peel) in the starchy state suitable for the preparation of alcohol or for mak- ing into a nourishing bread. 2. Meal in a starchy state from the pulp only for making into a superior kind of bread or porridge. 3. Flakes and meal in a dextrinous state for use in brew- eries or for making into nourishing soups, puddings, etc. 4. Dried peel and coarse meal prepared from it for feeding cattle and pigs. 5. Banana marmalade. 6. Dried bananas entire without peel put up like dried figs in boxes. 7. Raw alcohol from fresh bananas, and also from dried banana meal. 8. Syrup of bananas for confectionery, for preparation.-, of liquors and for sweetening champagne 9. Banana meal for the manufacture of glucose. 10. Fibre of banana and plantain prepared from the steins after fruiting, and intended for tlie manufacture of paper and cordage. ABUNDANT AND CHKAP Fl,OUR 29 Mr. Asser estimates the entire cost of a ton of banana meal, delivered in Europe, at $23. This in- cludes cost of cultivation, gathering the crop, making the meal, and the freight. At that time the average market value of Indian wheat in I^iverpool was J30 per ton. Considering the selling value of the meal to be no greater than that of the wheat, the prices quoted would show a margin of profit equal to about 30 per cent, on the capital invested. From British Guiana comes the following inter- esting information about platano flour, taken from a report by Dr. Shier on the ' ' Starch-producing Plants ' ' of that country : The plantain is so abundant and cheap that it might, if cut and dried in its green state, be exported with advantage. It is in this unripe state that it is so largely used by the peasantry of this Colony as an article of food. When dried and reduced to the state of meal, it cannot like wheat flour, be manufactured into macaroni or vermicelli, or, at least, the macaroni made from it falls into powder when put into hot water. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the husk of the plantain, slicing the core, and drying it in the sun. When thoroughly dry it is powdered and sifted. It has a fragrant odor, acquired in dry- ing, somewhat resembling fresh hay or tea. It is largely em- ployed as the food of infants and invalids. In respect to nutri- tiveness it deserves a preference over all the pure starches on account of the proteine compounds it contains. The flavor of the meal depends a good deal on the rapidity with which the slices are dried. Above all, the plantain must not be allowed to approach too closely to yellowness or ripeness, otherwise it be- comes impossible to dry it. The color of the meal is injured when steel knives are used in husking or slicing, but silver or nickel blades do not injure the color. Full-sized and well-filled bunches give 60 per cent, of core to 40 per cent, of husk and top- stem ; but in general it would be found that the core did not 30 WHAT EXPERIENCE PROVED much exceed 50 per cent, of dry meal, so that from 20 to 25 per cent, of meal is obtained from the plantain, or 5 pounds from the average bunch of 25 pounds ; and an acre of plantain walk of average quality, producing during the year 450 such bunches, would yield 4 tons and 10 pounds of meal. Ill 1 89 1, C. W. Meadeti wrote from Trinidad to the following effect in relation to a trial shipment of dried bananas '. This experiment will prove of importance to banana grow- ers, as drying bananas seems to open a way no other means offers of utilizing fruit. It overcomes the difhculty of bad roads, long hauls and other drawbacks some planters have to face in mar- keting bananas. The result of drying six bunches, weighing an average of 52 pounds per ripe bunch, was 97 pounds of dried fruit. There was a loss of two-thirds in peeling and drying. The fruit sold for f 19.40, or 20 cents per pound. Deducting freight charges left ^15.47, or a fraction under 16 cents per pound. This was at the rate of |i2.72 per bunch. The cost was put at 53 cents, which covered purchase of land, clearing woods and draining, planting, weeding and cutting, drying, fuel, boxes and packing ; but did not include cost of dryer, as that would be but a fraction on each bimch dried. After deducting the above there was a profit of $2.\g per bunch. Mr. Meaden said of this : I do not desire to set up as a teacher, but facts and figures speak for themselves. The account shown is not an approximate one, but the money has been received and the Canadians are asking for more at the same price. An order is now in hand for 224 pounds for London at 6d. per pound in bulk, the consignee to do the retail packing and advertising. As the fruit is some- thing new it is being sought, and all that can be dried is being profita])ly disposed of. I may add that the dryer does his work well, turning out the fruit in uniform color. Attention nuistbe paid to this, and also that fruit as nearly as possible of one size be dried, as this facilitates packing. Small ones can be used for stock, etc. Twelve good sized fruits weigh one pound. NOVElyTlES FOR HOUSEWIVES 3I The Daily Gleaner, of Kingston, Jamaica, said in March, 1899, in reference to an enterprise on the Mont- peHer estate of Hon. Bvelyn Ellis : As far as dried bananas are concerned the investment is o success. Orders are already taken for more than can be supplied. The factory will be duplicated as soon as possible. Every one who has tasted the bananas is of the opinion that they are supe- rior to figs in every way, and there is likely to be a large home consumption as soon as the factory can supply the market. Housewives who wish for novelties to lend new charm to their tables, to tickle the palate of the epi- cure, or to coax the reluctant appetite of the invalid, will find them in novel dainties made from bananas. Excellent and nutritious bread may be made of the flour. Puddings, fritters and sauce have already been mentioned ; but bananas glace are new to most north- ern folk, and may be made a most delightful addition to our desserts. They are superior to dried ligs, for when split into four slices, thickly covered with pow- dered sugar, and exposed to the sun awhile they turn themselves into a jelly-like, delicious and delicate con- fection, such as is at its best when made in the native home of the fruit, and packed in pretty boxes to be sent to people of fine taste in the cold North. Having in view all these facts, why should not multitudes make homes where scorching heat and bit- ing cold are never felt, and tornado and deadly blizzard are unknown ; where no destructive floods nor ruinous droughts ever come, and never ceasing winds bring coolness • from the sea ; where spring is eternal and harvests never end, and delicious fruits yield profusely all the years ; where the pine and palm together shade ^2 SECURITY FOR OI^D AGE the ground, and the coco and banana 3neld generous provision for ever}- need ; where a little work Insures against want and care, and health and leisure make old age secure and content ? 3gi;27 lip LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 000 909 114 2 .v.:^'>-^» rvv' ' ■^..■>. ;.,A"f-'-. -'